Several factors go into determining your rate, including event planning and operating expenses, salaries, and profits. Rates vary based on where you operate your business, types of projects you take on, and what the market is willing to pay.

For the following explanations and examples, let's assume you want to earn an average of $75 per hour for your services.

Fees Based on a Flat Project Rate

Many clients prefer to know how much a project will cost, inclusive of all fees.

Flat project fees are typically used for packaged events, such as those found with sports marketing programs, and may be calculated on a per-person basis with many stipulations and caveats. In this scenario, the client may contract directly with the event planner to coordinate all logistics, catering, venue, lodging expenses, etc.

For example, assume you are being hired to organize a one-day historic city tour for 15 guests. Your client wants you to quote a flat fee for transportation, a private guide, lunch and any/all admission fees to venues. However, they also ask that you provide a high-level breakdown of each expense item.

As an event planner, to offer this, you must come up with a flat fee by determining how much all aspects of the project will cost. You must negotiate and calculate the cost of all services, including your time, and quote a combined total for expenses.

This puts the responsibility of managing to a budget directly on you and requires anticipating a variety of scenarios in which circumstances may change. It's your responsibility and risk to identify required deposits, pay for all services, and hold responsibility for all service agreements.

Fees Based on a Percentage of Expenses

On average, event planners should charge between 15-20% of the total cost of an event as part of their fee. Depending on the complexity of the program and the amount of time it takes to plan and execute an event, sometimes this is enough to cover a planner’s entire cost and source of profit.

For example, assume you are being hired to organize a private dinner at an exclusive restaurant for 40 guests with an average of $175 per person. Let's estimate that it takes you a total of 15 hours to meet with your client, plan, attend and complete all follow up on this event. If you charge a rate of 18% of total expenses, you will earn just a little more than your targeted hourly rate of $75/hour:

$175 x 40 guests = $7,000 x 18% = $1,26015 hours x $75/hr = $1,125

If the client is contracting with you for all services directly, the subtotal event expense charge to the client would be a total of $8,260.

Fees Based on Hourly Rate

Some clients prefer the event planner to quote an hourly rate for services and to estimate the total number of hours to manage and execute a given client program. It may seem similar to the flat project rate, but it allows for more flexibility on the part of both parties to adjust to changes that may be needed along the way.

Many business event planners will bill hourly for services. It allows a client to know just how much it will cost to hire your services and allow them to calculate a reasonable budget. Frequently, the reason for this is because the client wants to have a better handle on any unexpected expenses.

Always remember to define careful parameters around expectations so that both parties are in agreement as to what services will be provided. As an event planner, you should include a reference to billing for all reasonable business expenses that may be incurred.

Some event planners may mark up operating expenses such as shipping, car rentals, and other miscellaneous expense items by as much as 15-20%. If you do, you should disclose such markups and obtain agreement with your client in advance.

When it comes to hourly event planning rates, it is also important to determine how frequently you may bill for your time.

For example, let's assume that a client is hiring you in October to organize a one-day seminar in March. Your services are being contracted to source and negotiate for the venue, catering services, A/V, and contribute to the content creation for a limited number of communications items (i.e., invitations, agenda, evaluation forms, etc.).

Your client is also hiring you to provide on-site management. You establish an agreement upfront that you will bill for identified services at different times, and will submit invoices for all services performed to date on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis.

Under this agreement, you and your client should both work out a detailed statement of work that includes the expected responsibilities of both parties. Then, you may estimate a total budget of so many hours plus reasonable expenses (be clear on what those details may include).

Fees Based on Percentage of Expenses Plus Flat Fee/Hourly Rate

Sometimes you’re being hired to organize an event, and for whatever reason, the client prefers a rate based on a percentage of expenses. However, this isn't enough to cover the cost of your total time and services. In these situations, it is reasonable to present your fees at a combined cost in two different categories.

For example, a client hires you to organize events associated with a conference. Your assignment is to organize two private dinners and a golf outing, each with 50 guests. The total cost for these combined events run approximately $20,000, but it requires about 60 hours of your time, and the complexity of this project may justify a higher profit margin. Keeping that in mind, you may come to your final flat fee and hourly rate with the following calculations:

In this scenario, you will need to carefully determine that you have estimated your hours appropriately (an account to cover non-standard operating expenses such as personal travel). As expected, few clients are pleased to see increases in expenses later on unless justifiable reasons are provided.

Fees Based on Commissionable Rates

Another way that event planners may collect fees for services is by securing event space through venues that offer a commissionable rate. These are fees typically provided to travel agents for booking tickets, hotel rooms, and other forms of transportation.

For example, many hotels may extend a commissionable rate up to as much as 10% for guest rooms and other expenses.

Although some event planners will embrace commissionable rates as a source of income for themselves, savvier clients may question the event planner’s sense of loyalties when commissionable rates are involved. For that reason, many seasoned planners will limit any planning selections that include a commissionable rate or negotiate non-commissionable pricing for their programs and pass that source of savings directly to their client’s bottom line.

Further, some clients may be aware that commissionable rates exist and do not expect their outside consultants to bill using any of the other identified billing methods we've outlined and still pay a commissionable rate. In general, it isn’t considered good form by many event planners to essentially “double-dip” their revenue stream this way.

If accepting commissioned rates, it's best not to charge your client fees for your services using alternative billing methods.

There are scenarios when commissionable rates do make the most sense, such as a smaller nonprofit or association that may be hiring your services for a membership event or meeting and the bulk of the fees are paid directly by the attendees rather than the organization.

Another scenario may be if your client is purchasing client gifts from you, and you may also offer promotional items distribution services. In that case, simply negotiate for the promotional items and do not charge for your services on an hourly basis unless your client is aware of all charges upfront.